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[AleHitti]

Hello everyone!

We are releasing our game on Steam in about 2-3 weeks, but we are still trying to decide on a price for the game. First off, here's a GIF of the game and the trailer:

Now here's where we are at:

• We believe the price should be between $5 and $10
• We'd rather sell more copies than make a large profit, since we believe reaching out to a bunch of people is more valuable than making a ton of money in this stage of our career
• We don't want people to see the game's price and assume it's bad simply because it's too low

Do you have any suggestions or experiences regarding Steam pricing?

Thank!

[J-Snake]

We'd rather sell more copies than make a large profit, since we believe reaching out to a bunch of people is more valuable than making a ton of money in this stage of our career

I just doubt that today the following consumer attitude is prevalent: "the game is more expensive, therefore it must be good so I will buy it". So I think that almost answers your question. I would go with 4.99$. I see a lot of small games priced like that or even lower.

[PixelJunkie]

Maybe something like $4.99, but $9.99 for 4-5 copies to share with friends? I don't actually know what pricing options steam gives you. People gobble that stuff up though. I have dozens of games in my steam library I haven't even played yet because my friends just buy up lots of cheap bundles and give away games. This way you can still get $9.99 while more people are exposed to your game. And if more people play a game that increases the game's ranking/popularity, doesn't it? It's like getting paid for free advertising.

[ｂ∀ ｋｋｕｓａ]

the good point will less then 5$ game is that you get people who trade cards and level up their steam account to buy your game even though they don't like the genre.

honestly i can't see your game being more expensive than 6,99 $ for the sole reason that the main character is just a cube.

[PixelJunkie]

the good point will less then 5$ game is that you get people who trade cards and level up their steam account to buy your game even though they don't like the genre.

honestly i can't see your game being more expensive than 6,99 $ for the sole reason that the main character is just a cube.

The gif does it no justice, watch the trailer and it starts to look interesting. Kinda reminds me of splosion man without all the obnoxious splosion man stuff.

[ｂ∀ ｋｋｕｓａ]

yeah i know about this game.
just worrying about the emotional link you can get with the game. 
kind of wish that it was more than just a cube because everything is so fluid and precise.
aka meat boy , they bleed pixels etc...

[PixelJunkie]

yeah i know about this game.
just worrying about the emotional link you can get with the game. 
kind of wish that it was more than just a cube because everything is so fluid and precise.
aka meat boy , they bleed pixels etc...

Ya, it shouldn't be any more than $4.99 and even that is a little high in my opinion for the simplicity of the game.

[AleHitti]

honestly i can't see your game being more expensive than 6,99 $ for the sole reason that the main character is just a cube.

I mean, Thomas was Alone is a game about a bunch of squares and it still sells for $9.99.

[ｂ∀ ｋｋｕｓａ]

but it was released in november 2012.  I don't know if its still relevant now .

your game will be popular on steam anyway. it's extremly polished so the price won't really matter.

[Zorg]

Are you able to adjust the price as you like all the time? If yes, you could go with 6.99 first and go down step by step to 5.99, 4.99 later. I'd go with a price over 5.00 first (if lowering the price is possible all the time).

-------------
I just checked the budget categories (which i use often, i'm poor).
Games Under 10€: 7501, Games Under 5€: 4481, resulting in a difference of: 3020.
So there are more games under 5€ than between 10€ and 5€: 4481:3020 = 1.48:1 more, fyi.

[AleHitti]

Are you able to adjust the price as you like all the time? If yes, you could go with 6.99 first and go down step by step to 5.99, 4.99 later. I'd go with a price over 5.00 first (if lowering the price is possible all the time).

Yes, Steam does allow you to update your price. They usually advice you wait at least 2 months after launching before updating for the first time and they also don't recommend you increase the price, though it is technically possible.

[PixelJunkie]

Maybe you should do some more research and see how well $4.99 games sell compared to $9.99. For example if $4.99 games only sell 15% more, then maybe you won't make as much profit as you would at $9.99.

[Oddball]

The only sensible way to price a game is to decide yourself what you think it is worth and go with that price. If you think it's worth $10 then make it $10. If you set it to $5 when you really thought it was worth $10 then all you are doing is cheapening the game, yourself, and everyone who worked hard on the game with you.

I sell a game on Steam for $7. It's $7 because I think the game is worth $7. If there are any Steam users out there that don't think it's worth $7 then they can wait for the inevitable Steam sale and buy it for cheap then.

[AleHitti]

I went to SteamSpy and downloaded their spreadsheets. This is the data that I got using the "Indie" filter:

The table below is Price Range and Average Number of Owners:

Price Range	Avg Num of Owners
$0-5	49,646
$5-10	114,361
------	------
$3-5	49,154
$5-7	46,048
$7-9	43,791
------	------
$9-10	153,407

I started with the approach to check games below $5 and between $5 and $10, but the data was very skewed, so I took smaller steps, removing all games from the range below $3, and got some more consistent data. Still, it is obvious that there are less owners the higher the price, but the difference isn't too significant to create concerns. Lastly, the $9 to $10 range is severely skewed thanks to games like Garry's Mod, Terraria, Limbo, FTL, Hotline Miami, Goat Simulator, among others.

It is nice to see that between $5 and $7, which is the range we are shooting for, there isn't too much difference, so I guess we will just value our game once we are done with it and put it up at that price, as Oddball suggested.

What do you guys think about this data?

[Battlefrog]

I think that $7 is a good price point for the game that you are trying to make. But, I do agree that you should believe in a price point and then make your game cost that much.

[DanglinBob]

Multipacks. That's the best advice this thread has given. You want to focus on long term customer acquisition AND higher profit? Multipacks.

Want 1 copy. 5 bucks. Want 2 copies? 7 bucks. Want freakin' 10 copies!? 10 bucks!

Something along those lines anyway. Go nuts, multipack the hell out of it and if you are on top of it the majority of people will spend "10 dollars" on a 5 dollar game... just to give away 9 other copies to their friends... or sell them on the russian black market or whatever :D

The end result is more customers for later and more profits for now.

[missfacetious]

I just went through this with how to price my own console game. Here are my thoughts when making my decision:

* Although I feel it is polished, it is my first game on console, so I didn't include everything and the kitchen sink in order to get it shipped.  People will find things "missing" that other console puzzle games have.. like. online multiplayer. So I went with lowering the price.
* It is casual enough for people to find an interest in it, but perhaps difficult for people to become super fans, so I went with lowering the price thinking more sales would be better.
* It has a good pace to unlock lots of different content so I went with upping the price.

At the end I really just wrote a pro/con list for justifying a $4.99 price tag.  I would be interested in anyone who think we base game prices based on video and screenshots, or if people say what something is worth based on other similar games or amount of play they would get?

[Zorg]

Hope your decision was right, does it sell well?

Is there a demo for the game somewhere?

[Calico70]

I have to agree with Zorg, $6.99 - it makes sense to pitch this pricing above the $5 mark because its harder to set a price increase than a decrease when you're at full RRP, especially when looked at from the consumers point of view. if sales do really well you have the opportunity to lower it to a $4.99 limited offer or promotional price maybe to create impulse purchasing.

if the game sales don't happen then you can at least migrate to a lower price at around $4.99 as your standard pricing.

pricing a product has so many psychological aspects to it, it's why we have that 1 cent or 1 penny (if you're British)under the next price pricing tier to most retail prices - buyers say "it only cost me 5 bucks" but mentally they looked at the pricing as "I'ts under 5 bucks".

I hope that made perfect sense 

[J-Snake]

Now that your game is also out on Linux and Mac it would be very helpful to have soon some information on the sales ratio between windows and those platforms, just to see how viable Linux and Mac is.